Greetings Stay-at-homers! A melancholic Matt here, celebrating our last night in the wonderfully arctic city of London. There’s a saying that echoes in my mind, “When you’re sick of London, you’re sick of life.” Well, though it has been memorable, I feel as if it is time to move on to other countries after sufficiently soaking up enough of the culture here to warrant a fulfilling trip. Today seemed like a day where we felt little was accomplished – so much of London was left untouched and unseen upon looking over the Lonely Planet book accompanying us on our journey. However, upon reflection, I feel that today we accomplished more in the ways of culture immersion than sightseeing. We went to communion in Westminster Abbey, we took a stroll over Tower bridge, we ate fish and chips and shared some laughs over a beer at a pub that we had a guarantee of NOT getting stabbed in (*cough* ANGIES BAR *cough*) and above all else, we made our way to the house of commons to watch Britain’s most charismatic fat cats duke it out in a battle of wills, wits and enough political jargon to make Yes Minister look like UK Big Brother. Then for dessert, two hours and six minutes of comedic genius with Billy Connolly at the Hammersmith Apollo.
After originally planning to head to Greenwich today, we got about halfway on the Tube, and thought – “do we really want to do this? Do we really want to spend half of our day doing one thing?” The answer was “not really, no” so we improvised our train trip, got off at near Tower of London, and walked across Tower bridge. We then went to Westminster Abbey for communion (and thus, free entry!), not before sitting down outside Barclays bank with a sandwich, waving to a group of female Netherlands tourists on a bus.
After communion, we made a quick dash to the House of Commons in the hopes of seeing Gordon Brown and David Cameron exchange heated arguments. When we got in, we had to get a photo print out I.D. badge to wear upon entry. Mine looked like I was some sort of maniacal serial killer with a penchant for wearing the skin of my victims like a cape. We saw the last ten minutes of question time, and then G.B. was out of there quicker than Iron Maiden fans at a Behind Crimson Eyes performance. We then were treated to a fat guy trying to pass a bill about ‘Technological Heritage’ which no one AT ALL (not even us) had any idea about what new changes in legislation he was proposing. The only thing of importance, was when he dropped the ‘c’ bomb in front of everybody. No joke. He actually did it. Apparently you can stream it, so listen to the audio. I kid you not...it is there!
Anyway, after our confusion decreased, we went and got some fabled fish and chips at a local pub, while treating ourselves to London’s finest and proudest warm beer. Next we decided to head to Kings Cross Station to head to platform 9 ¾. We asked one of the lovely staff members, who replied, “are you ‘avin a laff? Is HE ‘avin a laugh?” Eventually we made it, and took some pictures. Snape was nowhere to be seen though...but that’s not surprising really because he’s dead. Spoiler alert.
Anyway, we caught the train to Hammersmith to see Billy Connolly at the Apollo. Despite what the critics said, he was sensational. If you have a chance, take a trip to the Apollo and see him live – his show isn’t going for much longer, and I don’t know if they’ve sold out yet. But if not, it’s a definite recommendation to all.
Tomorrow we might return to Hyde Park. Hopefully we won’t get kicked out again because of a dead female being found there by the river.
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